When One Direction won their American Music Award for Artist of the Year, it was a bittersweet moment. No, no one can deny how great Harry Styles looked in Gucci, or how awesome the band sounded when they performed "Perfect" up on stage. But no matter how much they clowned around with Fifth Harmony or posed with their two shiny new trophies, there was clearly something missing: Zayn Malik, who had been with the band only a year prior, when they won the exact same award.

But though his presence might have been missed, Zayn wasn't experiencing FOMO in the least. How do we know? Because the singer tweeted out a super cryptic three letters shortly after his former bandmates won their awards:

Now, the timeline is a little shaky, as he sent the message nearly an hour after it was announced that One Direction took home the biggest award of the night. Plus, a "LOL" could mean anything...maybe he really was just laughing at something that he thought was funny. Maybe a friend of his told him a really funny joke, and he wanted the world to know he was in a good mood! Maybe he hit his funny bone on a table and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe he realized how deeply troubled and bleak the world is right now, and he wanted to share a bit of laughter and light out into the darkness. Or he may have found out that the band replaced him with a potato, which, yep, total LOL.

Or...maybe he wanted to retweet a fan's artwork that spelled out: don't worry, you'll get plenty of awards on your own one day. Alone. Without One Direction.